Dispute between PM Lee & Lee Hsien Yang arose during reading of LKY's last will

The brothers needed Ho Ching to break up the fight.

Henedick Chng | June 15, 2017, 10:28 PM

Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong's (LHL) lengthy rebuttal to his siblings' public allegations against him has thrown up many insights into the saga.

Among them was when the dispute between Hsien Loong and Hsien Yang (LHY) first arose.

According to LHL, he and LHY first clashed on Apr. 12, 2015, during the reading of their deceased father, Lee Kuan Yew's (LKY) last will.

Hsien Yang, Hsien Loong said, had insisted during the session that the house at 38 Oxley Road should be demolished immediately, but Hsien Loong was against it because it was too soon after their father's passing less than a month prior, on March 23.

Hsien Loong said that the public's emotions were still raw then, and the government might have reacted by gazetting the property.

The argument over the fate of the Oxley Road house during that meeting only ceased when Ho Ching (HC) "intervened" to ask Lee Wei Ling (LWL) if she wanted to continued living in the house. LWL said she did, according to LHL.

Here is the extracted paragraph on the incident:

"24. It was also during the reading of the Last Will on 12 April 2015 that the dispute between LHY and me arose. At the reading, LHY repeatedly insisted on the immediate demolition of the House. I said that such a move so soon after Mr Lee’s passing, when the public’s emotions were still raw, might force the Government to promptly react by deciding to gazette the House, and that would not be in the interests of Mr Lee’s legacy or Singapore. That discussion only ended when HC intervened to ask LWL if she wanted to continue living in the House. LWL said she did, which made the question of demolition moot. LHY then stopped insisting on the immediate demolition of the House."

LHL's full statement can be read here.

Top photos via crunchbase & Wikimedia.

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